Azinger Ends Slump, Wins Pebble Beach

PEBBLE BEACH, CALIF. — Paul Azinger used an eagle on the second hole as a catapult to run away from a group of struggling contenders Sunday and easily win the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am.

Azinger fired a final-round five-under-par 67 on a calm, mostly sunny day at Pebble Beach for a 72-hole total of 14-under-par 274. It was four strokes better than Corey Pavin, who also closed with a 67, and Brian Claar, who shot 68.

The victory was worth $198,000 to Azinger, 31, who has now won seven tournaments since winning his first in 1987.

Although Azinger played a mistake-free round, he was not pressured by a threesome with whom he was tied as late as the third hole Sunday. Rocco Mediate, the third-round leader, shot 74, while Davis Love III and John Cook each shot 73s.

The error-prone trio made the day that much more comfortable for Azinger, who was fighting the demons of failed Sundays past, in particular a haunting loss last February at Doral when he bogeyed the 72nd hole and then lost a four-way sudden-death playoff to an eagle by Greg Norman.

``Doral really set me back a long way,`` said Azinger, who had not won since the first tournament of 1990, the Infiniti Tournament of Champions. ``I lost a lot of confidence in myself. I was fighting bad memories of Doral today.``

Worse, the near-perfect weather conditions made it all the more likely that whoever won would have to survive a battle of birdies down the stretch.

``It was one of the nicest days I`ve ever seen to play at Pebble Beach,`` Pavin said. ``Everything was in our favor today. What more could you ask for?``

Nothing really, but as Azinger said of beautiful but hazard-laden Pebble Beach-and as his pursuers proved-``This is a nervous golf course. The worst can happen at any time.``

Azinger said he would never have picked himself to win the tournament. In six previous appearances here, he had never finished better than 22nd and had broken 70 only once.

But when Azinger could have lost his composure after a bogey, double bogey start on Saturday at Poppy Hills, he recovered to salvage a one-over 73 and stay in the tournament. ``It could have been a disaster, and holding my cool really made the difference,`` Azinger said.

Then after his explosive start Sunday, he played Pebble Beach`s fearsome stretch of three straight bearish par 4s from the 8th to the 11th holes with pars, including a great 4 at the ninth when he holed a 15-footer before Cook, his playing partner, missed a six-footer for par.

``You`ve got to get out of there without getting killed,`` Azinger said.

``It`s one of the toughest stretches in all of golf. But my concentration was great today, I was seeing straight through everybody I looked at.``

Playing in the last group with Love, Mediate played solid par golf until he reached the dramatic 431-yard par-4 eighth hole, where his approach over an inlet of the Pacific Ocean finished left of the green and led to a bogey. Mediate then bogeyed the equally difficult 464-yard 9th hole to fall two shots behind Azinger.

Love had closed to within two of Azinger with birdies on the 12th and the 565-yard 14th, but a bogey on the 402-yard 16th, a par 4, after he drove into the left rough took him out of the tournament.

Azinger missed the green on the 16th but recovered for a par, and then hit a 5-iron to 2 feet at 17 and made the putt for birdie to take a four-shot lead and seal the victory.

``General Hospital`` actor Jack Wagner and Cook won the pro-am with a better-ball score of 255.